Simon Scott is a multi-instrumentalist, sound ecologist and drummer from Cambridge, UK. His album (and journal) 'Below Sea Level' is out now on Touch.
His work explores the creative process of actively listening, the implications of recording the natural world using technology and the manipulation of natural sounds used for musical composition.
He plays the drums in Slowdive and has recently collaborated with artists such as James Blackshaw, Nils Frahm, Taylor Deupree (Between), Isan...

Ash International, the label run by Mike Harding from Touch http://www.touch33.net, will release my fourth solo album 'insomnia' on September 25th 2015. It was mastered by Denis Blackham and artwork was created by Philip Marshall.

Saturday, 30 May 2015

Spring has sprung over here in the UK and it's a pleasure to announce that the BBC television show 'Springwatch' have invited me onto the show to discuss my latest album 'Below Sea level'. I'll be chatting to Chris Packham on Monday 8th June at 9pm on 'Springwatch Unsprung'.

AirSpace gallery in Stoke-on-Trent are now exhibiting my new field recordings composition 'FloodLines' as part of a new exhibition called 'Battle Lines'.

My focus was collecting the sounds of the three types of water (flood) defence systems in the Fens. The wind pump at Wicken Fen, steam at Streatham and diesal at Prickwillow pump station. It's now open until June 27th and also features three other artists work within the gallery space.

UK music and arts organisation TOUCH have my 'Caxton Gibbet' radio piece now broadcasting. It's a composition created from within the gallows that stand on a site known famously in English folklore for its ghost stories and true tales of capital punishment taking place on this site:

'Caxton Gibbet' is also included in a wonderful new project 'Tyburnia' by The Dead Rat Orchestra about public execution sites in the UK when it's performed in Cambridge on Castle Hill on Sunday June 7th.

Sunday, 3 May 2015

Touch have added my piece 'Caxton Gibbet' to their Touch Radio series. It took between 2012 and spring 2015 to collect and edit hundreds of hours of sound recordings I made at this site.

The British Library, home to the UK's national collection of radio recordings, also share the exclusive Touch Radio broadcasts and I am honoured to become part of this collection. Listen and read about the project here (or go to Podcasts on iTunes and find Touch Radio):

A mile and a half from Caxton, at what was the crossroads (now a roundabout next to MacDonalds and a Costa Coffee) there exists a gibbet, a grim reminder of the history of the place. Gibbeting was the punishment for some capital offences including highway robbery. An iron cage would have hung from the wooden arm of the original gibbet. Here criminals were hung, imprisoned in the cage until they were dead. The head was clamped at the top to prevent tired legs from resting and the person would slowly starve to death, or in the winter succumb to exposure. The body would remain suspended for some time after death as a warning to others.

The original gallows stood on Caxton Common and open area of land that surrounded the junction which was part of King’s Field.

There are, not surprisingly, a number of tales about the people to have died on the gibbet. The most common tale relates to the robbery and murder of the Partridge family, in Monk Field, Bourn in the 18th century. The murderer fled to America but returned to England after 7 years. After spending some time in a local pub, drink loosened his tongue and he alluded to fleeing the place because he had poached some partridges. The publican believed him to be referring to the unsolved murders and called the police. The man was then arrested and sentenced to be hung in the cage and starve to death.

Another variation tells of a man named Jack Williamson who had a black lurcher called Flash whom he adored. Flash became ill and died after 2 weeks. Knowing Albert Partridge had envied Flash, Williamson became convinced he had killed his beloved dog. The two men met and Williamson struck Partridge. He then, unusually for him, began drinking and muttered about Partridges. When Albert’s body was found Williamson was therefor linked to his death. He was gibbeted alive. A baker who took pity on him and offered him bread suffered the same fate.

Legend has it that a landlord of a nearby inn murdered three travellers but was found out and hung on the gibbet.

In 1676 a highwayman called Christopher Ewings was hung here. On 10 August 1745 Footmass and Jerroms were hung for robbing Mr William Wright, a horse dealer of his gold on 12 February 1744.

The area is a place with a lot of history. The bodies of suicides were traditionally buried at crossroads as they were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. It is not clear whether this happened at this particular crossroads though. Here the A1198 (the old Roman road) and the A428 meet. Nearby used to be the Caxton Gibbet airfield. In September 1939 it was used as a satellite for Bassingbourn but from 1940 it was used by 50 group as a landing area for No 22 Elementary Flying School. The inn nearby (the original would have been 18th century) catered for viewers of the gibbeting.

More recently the inn became a Chinese restaurant that mysteriously burnt down in 2011 and reports of ghostly visions of a hitchhiker who disappear when motorists slow down to offer them a ride and also a voice appearing over car stereo's forewarn motorists of impending accidents.

In 2015 McDonalds restaurant bought the site and began to trade but the gallows still stand at the entrance as a macabre reminder of the local history and English folklore.

CHAIN D.L.K. (.COM)

TEXTURA (.ORG)

"He has granted access to what for many will be a new locale and provided enlightenment about its dramatic history."

AMBIENT EXOTICA (.COM)

"Scott’s devotion to this project results in a fantastic journey through the Fenlands of England."

WAJOBU (.COM)

"Simon Scott has given us a great gift—finding music in nature."

SKELETON CREW QUARTERLY (BLOG)

"In some cases, Scott seems to be playing for the present moment, merely coexisting with a complicated patch of nature. In its most satisfying moments, however, Below Sea Level sounds like a poignant farewell."

Simon Scott (Kesh) SHOP (CD's, Vinyl, Downloads, etc)

Album reviews

Robert Macfarlane: "It's an amazing sound world, into which you fall (subside)".The Wire Magazine called it "this exquisite study in sound ecology.”

EARS LEND: “ A stand-out album of glowingly warm, densely textured excursions into landscape & memory. Also a hugely impressive book of thoughts & photography".

MUSICWONTSAVEYOU.com: "It is this combination between rural nostalgia and pathos of human content to fill "Below Sea Level", raising the charm and the imprint emotional well above the average of the many products and electro-acoustic environment."

THE WIRE MAGAZINE say: "Scott is particularly adept at layering coolly shimmering guitars and churning currents of noise into something vast. A haunting aspect is how it seems to contain traces of tunes that stand out like half-forgotten relics of the past”.

FLUID RADIO (UK)

"Below Sea Level is Magnificent. He has finally reached back to this sort of seminal moment where he was at one with the world."

"In some cases, Scott seems to be playing for the present moment, merely coexisting with a complicated patch of nature. In its most satisfying moments, however, Below Sea Level sounds like a poignant farewell."